Migrating your GoDaddy Bookkeeping data to Quickbooks
Be prepared for GoDaddy discontinuing by migrating your historical data to Quickbooks.
Effective June 18, GoDaddy Bookkeeping will be discontinuing and retiring its bookkeeping and accounting software for ecommerce sellers.
This leaves you in a bit of a bind trying to find new accounting software that is a good fit for your ecommerce business. But, fear not! We know change can be hard but this is a great opportunity to reflect on your current process and how it can be improved.
Whether you sell on Etsy, eBay, Amazon, or other platforms or marketplaces. You can check out this blog to learn more about how to identify and choose the best GoDaddy Bookkeeping alternative for your ecommerce brand.
No matter which bookkeeping alternative you choose, it’s important to make this transition as smooth as possible by not losing your historical financial information. Here we will walk you through how to migrate your historical data from GoDaddy Bookkeeping to your new accounting software or just backup your data so you have it readily available for any potential IRS audit.
Here’s how to migrate your GoDaddy Bookkeeping data
One common choice for bookkeeping software is QuickBooks Online, especially since GoDaddy has partnered with Intuit to provide an initial discount to GoDaddy customers.
So let’s focus on how to migrate data to a new QuickBooks Online account.
What data should you migrate to your new account?
In order to transition your books to Quickbooks, you can either:
- Migrate all of your historical data (to date) from GoDaddy to QuickBooks Online;
- Migrate your historical data until January 1, 2022, and rebuild your books from January 1st, 2022 until today in Quickbooks Online (recommended).
The main advantage of option 2 over option 1 is to create consistency in your books. With two different sets of accounts and accounting systems, tax prep can be much more complex and expensive. Rebuilding your books from January 1 allows you to compare your income and expenses month over month and makes it MUCH easier when it comes time for tax preparation.
How can you migrate your data to your new account?
In terms of the HOW….broadly, you have 2 options to migrate your financial data from GoDaddy Bookkeeping to QuickBooks Online:
- Export your financial data from GoDaddy to a CSV/Excel file (as a backup for previous years), or
- Use GoDaddy’s migration tool as offered by Godaddy in their retirement announcement.
GoDaddy’s migration tool seems to be the more obvious choice to get this done accurately but there are some limitations to be aware of. First, let’s dive into how it works.
So how does GoDaddy’s migration tool work?
Your historical financial transactions will be synced into QuickBooks Online as journal entries.
A journal entry records a business transaction in the books of your business. Every financial transaction impacts at least two accounts, one account is debited and the other is credited, for the same amount.
This process is known as double-entry accounting and is a big difference between how you managed your books using GoDaddy Bookkeeping (where you don’t record all the journal entries since there are no balance sheet reports) and Quickbooks Online, which is a full accounting system.
Let’s take a look at an example of a journal entry for an advertising expense that is paid from your credit card. In Quickbooks Online, this entry would look like this:
Creating journal entries of your historical data is a good way to back up your financial information, however, these journal entries are not reconciled with your bank or credit card transactions when added using the GoDaddy migration tool.
A reconciled journal entry means you found the journal entry’s match in the bank feed, its soul mate, its lifelong companion.
Why does this matter?
Without a match to your bank feed, this means that there is no direct correlation between your bookkeeping records and your actual bank transactions, which is one of the key elements in maintaining accurate and reliable books. You may end up with 100 journal entries and only 85 actually match real bank or credit card transactions. This could create a discrepancy between your books and your banks, causing your books to be - to use the proper professional term here - screwed up.
In essence, there is no big difference between keeping your historical records by creating unreconciled journal entries and using an offline CSV file.
As an FYI, some GoDaddy customers have reported some errors associated with migrating their historical data which left them with financial gaps. If you use the migration tool, it’s important to review the entries carefully and make sure everything has been properly migrated.
Here is a log of most commonly reported issues with the GoDaddy-QBO migration tool:
[06/10/22] - A customer first reported duplicate entries of migrated Etsy and Ebay payouts in QBO. More customers further reported this since then.
[06/12/22] - A customer reported missing entries for March and April 2022 causing incomplete reports year-to-date. More customers further reported this since then.
[06/13/22] - A customer reported various errors in the migrtation tool's error report with no further explanation of the errors within the tool. More customers further reported this since then.
[06/18/22] - A customer reported missing eBay sales transactions from January until March 2022. More customers further reported this since then.
What are the Pros and Cons of moving from GoDaddy Online Bookkeeping to QuickBooks Online?
Another alternative: Use an automated bookkeeping system like Finaloop
A DIY accounting system can be a good option if you have some level of bookkeeping experience and, on average, 6-12 extra hours a month to spend on bookkeeping.
For those of you without extra time on your hands, Finaloop offers a great, cost-effective alternative for your ecommerce business that provides you with full accounting services. This frees your time to focus on growing your ecommerce store, improving your listings, and managing your customers (no more wasted time on monthly bookkeeping tasks).
Finaloop offers unlimited integrations with all your apps and banks and uses a team of bookkeepers to reconcile your books in real-time, so you don’t need to perform any accounting tasks yourself. Your financial information and KPIs are presented in a single financial dashboard, so you can make smarter decisions in real-time.
Finaloop experts are here to help you migrate from the GoDaddy Bookkeeping platform and will rebuild your books from January 1, 2022 for no extra costs so you have clean, organized, and consistent books for the whole year. You can register now and get a 30-day free trial for GoDaddy users and an affordable monthly price that includes not only software, but also integrations, and start-to-finish accounting services.
About Finaloop
We are a technology company providing automated end-to-end accounting service to ecommerce businesses. Our system connects to your apps, syncs all your data, and reconciles your books in real-time, replacing your bookkeeper. We offer reconciled books available 24/7, tax-saving insights, and a single place for all your financial data.
*The information provided on this website does not, and is not intended to, constitute legal advice. All information, content, and materials available on this site are for general informational purposes only. Readers are advised to consult with their attorney or accountant with any questions or concerns.*
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